The defining moment of turn-of-the-21st-century America is perfectly portrayed
in National Book Award winner Don DeLillo's Falling Man. The book takes its
title from the electrifying photograph of the man who jumped or fell from the
North Tower on 9/11. It also refers to a performance artist who recreates the
picture. The artist straps himself into a harness and in high visibility areas
jumps from an elevated structure, such as a railway overpass or a balcony,
startling passersby as he hangs in the horrifying pose of the falling man.
Keith Neudecker, a lawyer and survivor of the attack, arrives on his estranged
wife Lianne's doorstep, covered with soot and blood, carrying someone else's
briefcase. In the days and weeks that follow, moments of connection alternate
with complete withdrawl from his wife and young son, Justin. He begins
a desultory affair with the owner of the briefcase based only on their shared
experience of surviving: "the timeless drift of the long spiral down." Justin
uses his binoculars to scan the skies with his friends, looking for "Bill
Lawton" (a misunderstood version of bin Laden) and more killing planes. Lianne
suddenly sees Islam everywhere: in a postcard from a friend, in a neighbor's
music--and is frightened and angered by its ubiquity. She is riveted by the
Falling Man. Her mother Nina's response is to break up with her long-time
German lover over his ancient politics. In short, the old ways and days are
gone forever; a new reality has taken over everyone's consciousness. This new
way is being tried on, and it doesn't fit. Keith and Lianne weave into
reconciliation. Keith becomes a professional poker player and, when questioned
by Lianne about the future of this enterprise, he thinks: "There was one final
thing, too self-evident to need saying. She wanted to be safe in the world and
he did not."
DeLillo also tells the story of Hammad, one of the young men in flight training
on the Gulf Coast, who says: "We are willing to die, they are not. This is our
srength, to love death, to feel the claim of armed martyrdom." He also asks:
"But does a man have to kill himself in order to accomplish something in the
world?" His answer is that he is one of the hijackers on the plane that strikes
the North Tower.
At the end of the book, De Lillo takes the reader into the Tower as the plane
strikes the building. Through all the terror, fire and smoke, De Lillo's voice
is steady as a metronome, recounting exactly what happens to Keith as he sees
friends and co-workers maimed and dead, navigates the stairs and, ultimately,
is saved. Though several post-9/11 novels have been written, not one of them
is as compellingly true, faultlessly conceived, and beautifully written as
Don De Lillo's Falling Man.
Read by John Slattery.
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